Advisory Council
Oxford Capital’s investing, value building and exiting has the benefit of the support from its Advisory Council and international CEO’s Panel. The Advisory Council comprises two panels, one scientific and the other strategic. Each expert is able to contribute their specific expertise whether in an area in which they are renowned experts or in fields where they have valuable experience.
It should be noted that each member of the Advisory Council is independent of Oxford Capital and all decisions to invest or to divest are made solely by Oxford Capital.
The role of the Scientific Advisory Panel is to be a source of available technical advice and to provide access to the scientific and technological communities with which Oxford Capital often seeks to verify information. These scientists and technologists have been selected on the basis of their leadership in the areas in which Oxford Capital is focused. The members of the Strategic Advisory Panel members are consulted by Oxford Capital on strategic issues, significant portfolio company situations and institutional relations.
Scientific Advisory Panel
Professor Colin Bain, Chemistry and Materials, holds the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Durham. Previously, he was a faculty member at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Magdalen College and a Director of the Oxford Science Park. He received his PhD from Harvard University where he established the technology of ‘self-assembled mono-layers’ for controlling surface functionality. His current interests span the chemistry of interfaces between mechanical engineering to molecular biology. He has received several awards for his work in the UK and overseas.
Professor Richard Darton, FREng, Engineering Sciences, is a chemical engineer by training with a focus on fluid separations and chemical processing. After a career at Shell, he became an academic and was Head of the Department and Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. His expertise in sustainable engineering relates to removal of micro-contaminants from treated water and he has a general interest in the assessment of sustainability through the use of metrics. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a member of the American Chemical Society, a Senior Research Fellow at Keble College, Oxford and an Honorary Member of the Czech Society of Chemical Engineers.
Professor Leslie Iversen FRS, Life Sciences, is a pharmacologist, a Visiting Professor at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, and founder of the pharmaceutical company Panos Therapeutics Ltd. He is Chairman of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He has been involved in assisting a number of start-up companies in the biomedical field in Europe and USA.
Professor Nigel Poole, OBE, Public Affairs, a microbiologist, is interested in scientific trends and their acceptance by society, including many aspects of biotechnology. He is a member of several UK and European industrial and public sector scientific advisory councils concerning ecology, the environment, biotechnology, and food production. He received the Chemical Industry 1996 Award for the “outstanding contribution to advancing Public Understanding of Science” and an OBE for services to the biotechnology industry in 1999. He was formerly head of external and regulatory affairs at Zeneca Plant Science and is an Honorary Professor at Aberdeen University.
Robert Foster, Public Policy, has wide experience of a number of high technology sectors including engineering, IT, telecommunications, aerospace and defence. He is a former Chief Executive of the Competition Commission and was Director of Innovation Policy at the DTI, chairing its innovation funding board. He helped to set up the Office of Science and Technology and was deputy to the Government Chief Scientific Adviser. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Dr Eliot Forster, Biotechnology, has close to 20 years industry experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He is currently CEO of Creabilis Therapeutics. Eliot was Head of EU Development and of Development Operations in the EU & Asia at Pfizer. During his career at Pfizer Dr Forster was responsible for bringing a number of drugs to market, including Celebrex (celecoxib) and Relpax (eletriptan). Dr Forster holds a PhD from Liverpool University and an M.B.A. from Henley Management College. He has held a number of Non-Executive Director roles in the biotech sector and is an advisor to the UKTI Life Sciences Strategy Board.
Dr Hubert Matthews, Communications Sciences, holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford in Engineering Sciences and has over 15 years experience of working with technology businesses. He has advised a range of leading technology corporations in the telecommunications fields, including being a technology architect for Orange, and in the logistics sector for DHL. He has worked on projects in the financial services industry for clients such as Barclays Capital, Natwest, Nomura and Accenture. He has also been involved with a number of start-up companies including Unicorn Hospital Communication, a business pioneering multimedia systems for patient entertainment and improved care.
Strategic Advisory Panel
Michael Pragnell, International Strategy, is Chairman of Cancer Research UK and was previously Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta, one of the world’s largest agribusinesses, and a member of the Chairman’s Committee. He was also Director of AstraZeneca and Director of Zeneca Group PLC. He joined Zeneca Agrochemicals as Chief Executive Officer in 1995. Prior to 1995 he worked for Courtaulds PLC in a number of senior positions. He has a degree in modern languages from the University of Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD Business School.
George Robinson, Investment Strategy, is the co-founder and a partner of Sloane Robinson LLP, a leading hedge fund and investment management firm based in London specialising in absolute return investing in Europe, Asia and Emerging Markets. He is also an active venture capital investor. After reading engineering science at Oxford he commenced his career in Asia with the Swire Group before joining stockbroker W I Carr for whom he established offices in Korea and Thailand before moving to Hong Kong as Director of Regional Research responsible for Hong Kong, China and emerging Asia.
Anthony Simon, Business Strategy, Marketing & Sustainability, has spent more than 35 years in the global food industry, with Bestfoods and latterly as President Marketing for Unilever Foods. He represented both companies at the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos. Since retirement from Unilever he has been active in sustainable development (principally via the World Business Council for Sustainable Development) and in educating tomorrow’s leaders (primarily via INSEAD in France and the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University Sweden). He is a member of a number of boards (including start ups) and advisory boards. He holds an MA in Modern Languages from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.
Maurice de Waldner, European Sustainability Strategy, formerly the founder and Chief Executive of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in France with responsibility for international clients working across global markets, prior to which he had a distinguished career in industry, mainly in industrial equipment and defence industries.
Professor Susan Iversen, CBE, FMedSci, Science Strategy, is an eminent leader of science and its management. She has worked in the National Institutes of Health in Washington and at the Harvard Medical School, and later established the largest commercial Neuroscience Research Centre in the UK on behalf of Merck & Co. Her strategic interests lie in the convergence of science via interdisciplinary and international cooperation.
Rod Chamberlain, Board and Governance, has held Board and Executive Committee positions in investment and retail banks and at the predecessor of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. His primary interest is now in career guidance and boardroom dynamics. He also chairs a major disability charity and is on the Board of public companies in the UK and overseas. He holds an MA (Economics) Cambridge, and an MBA from INSEAD Business School.
Dr. Victor Seidel, Entrepreneurship, is a Faculty member of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, where he teaches courses focused on entrepreneurship and the management of science and technology based firms. He studies processes by which new products are developed within entrepreneurial firms. He holds a PhD from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Cambridge and a BSc (Electrical Engineering) from Cornell. Earlier, he spent ten years in the semiconductor industry with IBM in the US and Europe.
Print this page